Navigator Review 3/25-4/1

[macbest]

Here is a synopsis of our Navigator trip, Eastern Caribbean, March 25 – April 1, 2005.

 

We took a red eye March 24 SFO-LAX-MIA and after the 1 mile walk from the gate to the baggage claim, took a cab to a Comfort Inn near the port (Cab fare about $75). A couple hours of sleep so we could be rested when we got on the ship. The pier in Ft Lauderdale is a pit, a true shipyard. Compared to others like in New Orleans and Tahiti, this one has nothing to do surrounding the area. We got on at noon to one of the smoothest check ins to date. Had a good buffet lunch in Portofino and signed up for massages and our first alternative dinner in Portofino. By the time the cabins were available to us at 2:30, our luggage was already in the room. We were in cabin C-927 an unusual room in that it is outside of the glass door that separates the general area with the elevator with the rest of the rooms forward on Deck 9. I was concerned about elevator noise (actually the people taking the elevator and getting off) but it turned out to be no problem.

 

Here are some of the highs and lows of the trip. Don’t get too hung up on the lows they are few and far between. I have very high expectations from Radisson being our fourth trip and the other three have all been over the top. In an effort to continually improve their product, I have provided little things for Radisson to consider and have usually been met with glee by staff in order to improve. Others complain often looking for something. I do what I can just to provide feedback for them to consider. Indeed many of my past comments have been corrected on future cruises.

 

Food and Servers

Bottom line: Very very good. We had a full load (490) people and a much higher percentage than other lines I have been on of older folks. I didn’t see this as a problem except I felt that some of the food catered more to this audience like the extensive consommé’s served at each dinner. I spent some time with the Executive Chef, Sylke -- (who is a kick in itself when she talks about her “boys,” the 52 other chefs on board that have been with her for 6 years on the ship; now that is loyalty! – and her feedback is that she does create a wide variety but soups are one area where she doesn’t give as much latitude. Here is a trick some may not know: all of the dishes recipes are available to you just by asking. We really enjoyed the pasta dishes and I was able to get a copy of each sent to my stateroom.

 

Following the slogan, “special orders don’t upset us” all requests we made were done and with never a balk. Eggs benedict are not on the breakfast menu in Compass Rose but they made them for us, with extra sauce, no questions asked. In fact, I asked for extra sauce for most of the meat dishes at dinner and was always accommodate d with a smile.

 

While in Portofino for lunch one day, a waiter came up and asked if we had been on the Mariner two years ago! It was Gerry, our waiter we so loved from the Mariner. We ended up eating at one of his tables in the Compass Rose every night after and his service was what really makes Radisson exceptional in the dining room: prompt, whatever you want you get, always serving from your right (I hate it when they throw two plates to two people at the same time by serving from the wrong side) and always knew who got what dish (not the often heard line from other cruise lines, “who gets the fish, who gets the beef Wellington!”). Funny, however, that we never had the headwaiter visit our table, even once during the cruise. On the PG, the headwaiter was exceptional always trying to find out how he could make things better. But again, Gerry was so great, I can’t imagine how the presence of a head waiter could have improved on it.

 

The food in Portofino grill is of the same quality, in my opinion, as the compass rose. The atmosphere is just different, the latter being much noisier and not quite as attentative with the service staff. During the week, the grill turns from an Italian Steakhouse to a classical Italian restaurant with singing by staff and passengers. It was a lot of fun.

 

They had great poolside meals at lunch including a grilled fish day that was exceptional. Room service was also prompt and very good. The coffee was the only area that was not as good and probably because we like our coffee less strong. A nit.

 

Wines served during dinner were not as good as served on the Paul Gauguin last summer. While okay, they were not of the same caliber. We often asked for an alternate and were always accommodated. Again, this is where the staff really shines. We had a wine server, Jill, who always knew that my wife likes California Chardonnay’s (after we told her the first night) and would always ask first to see if she wanted to try the white wine of the day and then had the CA Chard ready to go.

 

Let me know if you have any questions on the food or wines as this is a passion of mine and a key reason why we sail Radisson.

 

Stateroom

There has been a lot said about size, conveniences, etc. and they are all true. We spent a fair amount of time on the balcony, as the sun just seemed to be on the other side of the ship. We had perfect weather all week: no rain, and it did not exceed 85 degrees (with the exception of one day in San Juan where it hit 89). We did have a number of maintenance issues with the room, all of which were not repaired. They included an A/C that couldn’t get the room cooled enough. Problems with the VCR seemed to also linger and we also had a leaky sink that never got repaired despite several requests. All of these were trivial, however as we went with the flow.

 

Excursions

Grand Turk was a bust. If you dive, I’m sure its fantastic; we snorkeled and it was choppy and not too many fish. The island is desert like with essentially no shopping. It is somewhere to stop on the way to San Juan. They probably should start looking for another place in my opinion. We spent the rest of the time by the pool that was fine by us.

 

We met up with some friends in San Juan and had a private tour of this very exciting stop. In St Thomas, we did the Catamaran sail to St. John and Honeymoon beach. This was exceptional except that it was cut short by one hour (the one hour we were to spend on the beach which is incredible) due to having to anchor vs. dock like originally planned. The tender ride was very rough and 25 min each way, hence one less hour. I let the tour desk know and they “noted it”but that was it. I would recommend this tour. Very relaxing sail across the sound and lots of fish to see when snorkeling. They only take about 30 people where all of the other super mega ships did a similar excursion with 100’s on theirs. We had come and were leaving by the time the others showed up. St. John is not to be missed. Let me know if you have any excursion questions.

 

We stayed on the boat in Nassau other than a quick tour of the straw market. In fact, we enjoyed a lot of time by the pool just relaxing and reading which is what a vacation is all about! Because of the number on board, however, it was often very difficult to get a chaise in the shade. Almost impossible. This was a general comment that I noted all over the ship. While the Navigator is supposed to have a very high space ratio, we found it much more crowded than the other Radisson ships even when they were near capacity (which seems to be the time we most often are on them.)

 

Disembarkation

We had a 2pm flight from MIA and so wanted to stay on as long as reasonable. We were able to have a nice breakfast and leave at our pace around 9:30 which minimized to the extent possible our wait time at the airport. It took longer to walk off the ship than it did in total to get our luggage and through customs.

 

We are again sold on Radisson. There are a million things that happen in a week where we always sit back and say, “only on Radisson” does this or that happen that doesn’t happen on other cruise lines we have been on. I just wish they had another boat or two so more itineraries could be accommodated. I can post a few other topics on entertainment, casino, galley tour, library, Internet on board, nightclubs, and spa if you are interested as we experienced them all.

 

Wayne

[JanMD]

Wayne,

Thanks for your review. We know Gerry also. He is excellent and we knew him from The Mariner also. We also have had a problem with the A/C in those cabins.

It sounds like you had a wonderful time. We were on her over Christmas.

Great review.

Jan

[KeepCruizen]

Thanks Wayne for a great review! We will be leaving on the April 27th cruise I had a couple of questions I hope you can answer for me on my docs all I can find about evening attire is one formal night nothing about how many informal and country club casual did your docs say the same or am I just missing it? I see that you were able to board at noon did they not have a problem with that? Would love to get your review about the casino and the spa and anything else you can think of.

 

Thanks again!

Denise

[rosemail]

Thanks Wayne,

 

Great review, I am also booked on the April 27 voyage, in the identical cabin location, one deck above yours, and I had similar concerns. Thanks for your input. I would greatly appreciate your recommendations on the available wines.

[macbest]

There was one formal night (on Captain's welcome night which was on Saturday for us, 2nd night out) and one informal night (on the second at Sea day which for us was Wednesday). The rest is country club casual. These numbers (but not the actual days) were listed in the large 8 1/2 x 11 book that they send with our docs.

 

I'm not big on dressing up after having fell in love with the Mariner's to Alaska and PG to Tahiti's all country club causual. But I did find that they didn't seem to shun you out if you were not dressed up. One thing to consider, Portofino's Grill is a lot more laid back. Momo, the Asst Maiter'D did not have a problem if you didn't get all fancied up on those days if you were eating in "his" restaurant.

 

The spa is very very small. It is the typical price for a 50min massage that you see on other lines ($110). Given that it is so small, however, you should make sure to sign up early, especially for at sea days. We signed up at 1:30 on day of departure and it was already 1/2 full on those days. They do a great job, similar to what I remember in Tahiti which was fantastic.

 

The casino is also small, but very cozy. They have about 30 slots (1/2 quarter machines and 1/2 dollar machines) of various types although not my favorite, Wheel of Fortune. There are a couple of black jack tables, a roulette table and one craps table. The entire area was never too busy except for the first two nights out for some reason.

 

As for wines, they have a nice reserve list starting around $50. Wines like Jordan Cab, Far Niente among others. We stuck with the included wines. Something to consider that we did which turned out great: They list the wines they are serving in the compass rose with the menu at the entrance to the restaurant each day (after lunch) and then also check out the wines being served at Portofino grill. If you are eating in one vs. the other you can always ask to have served the other wines and they will happily accomodate. As mentioned, my wife likes California Chardonnays and they would serve her Beringer, Haywood, and Robert Mondavi, all which were okay with her. Don't be fooled by the "same" menu at Portofino grill also. They do change the wines out daily in addition to one featured entree each day. The wines there tended to be bigger (red's, at least) like Barolos, Barbera's. On the causal night in Portofino's where they serve a set menu with singing, they pull out a decent Chianti (in the wicker bottle) that is no cheap version we all had when we were younger. This one is perfect for the gnocchi with prosciutoo with a chive cream sauce (killer recipe you have to ask for).

 

Hope that helps.

[Marylis]

Hi - We were also on the March 25th cruise and had a wonderful time. We are in the middle of putting together a travel log and photo album and will post a link when it's ready.

 

We loved Momo in the Portofino Grill and thought the food was slightly better up there, and the service was much more attentive - not that the service in the Compass Rose was bad, but we felt like old friends whenever we were at the Portofino Grill, where they greeted us by name and knew our likes and dislikes.

 

This was our first cruise and we were a bit nervous when we discovered we were on a spring break cruise - we thought the ship might feel too crowded. Not having been on ANY cruise before, it did not feel at all crowded to us; however we did not ever try to sit out by the pool, and also always sought out less "popular" places to hang out. I was amazed on the last day when everyone was out of their staterooms but no one had left the ship yet. I expected to see people everywhere, but I didn't. I don't know where they all were!

 

We were more bothered by cigarette smoking than we expected to be, but then Lis is very sensitive to cigarette smoke. We were in cabin 525 which is about 4 cabins away from the elevator outside the Compass Rose. During dinner people would smoke outside the elevator and it would drift down our hall. We could never smell it in the room, but the hallway did stink quite often. I don't know what they did to get rid of the smell, but if there was no one actively smoking, the air would smell fresh again.

 

Regarding the much-discussed vibration -- there is a pronounced vibration in the Portofino Grill. (We were in the restaurant having dinner when they fired up the engines to leave Nassau, and there was such a shuddering and clattering of glasses that I thought something might break), but we didn't notice anything anywhere else. It seemed odd that Portofino's (aft on Deck 10) would have such issues while other venues on lower decks didn't seem to. Of course, we didn't spend a lot of time in the Show Lounge, Compass Rose or Galleleo's, so perhaps there was more vibration there than we know. However, when we were in those places, we didn't notice anything, while you really couldn't miss it at Portofino's. It wasn't that bad, though, and certainly didn't keep Portofino's from becoming our favorite place to eat on ship:)

 

We also greatly enjoyed the ship launderette, which was just around the corner from our room. We did so much laundry that our steward, Noel (who was a peach and took fabulous care of us) even took notice ("ah, laundry again..?"). This was partly because it was fun and partly because Mary, always something of a klutz under the best of conditions, had some initial trouble adjusting to the movement of the ship and was continuously spilling food on herself...

 

Anyway, Mary took pictures of EVERYTHING - menus, daily newsletters, food, ship.... once we've got those posted, we'll post a link.

 

Mary and Lis

[JanMD]

Mary and Lis,

The vibration has been there in the Portifino Grill for awhile. I guess Momo gets used to it. I know when we were on in Dec. they were supposed to fix something but that it sounds like the vibration is still there. We had to be pushed in and pulled out of each port by a tug boat. That was over Christmas.

Sounds like you had a nice time.

Jan

[jhp]

Wayne, I'm a little confused about dinner in Portofino. Is there singing by the staff and passengers every night, like on the Diamond in Don Vito's with fixed menu? You said it was a little noisy, and last time I was on the Navigator, there was a menu selection and no entertainment. I will be on her for my third cruise in June, so was wondering if things had changed since I was on first her first two years. Thanks for your very thorough review!

[Marylis]

Olivia - To answer your question about Portofino, some nights it was an Italian Steakhouse where the menu was not fixed and the entertainment was a roving guitarist. Other nights was something like an Italian Fiesta or something where apparently there was only one seating, and a more fixed menu and more entertainment. We went on Italian Steakhouse nights. I think Wayne probably went on the other night.

 

Lis and Mary

[macbest]

Per MaryLis, we went to both events: the steakhouse night that was done the first two nights and the last two nights, and in between for three nights was the singing by staff and passengers. We actually found both to be very enjoyable. The singing one was almost more fun as everyone got into the evening in a big way. As I mentioned, with a larger dominance of older folks on board, everyone got to let their hair down on the singing night and all -- young and old -- were up dancing and singing. How fun is that!

[Jeanne S]

Macbest: Did you partake of the cheese trolley and glass of port. We did - every evening. The Golf Pro's spouse insisted we try the port which was quite good. This was 6/04 to Bermuda and I am sailing with my niece on Navigator this August.

 

We were fortunate in that there were lots of single cabins (given the low $100 single supplement on this sailing) so our capacity was approx 440. We never had difficulty obtaining a chaise in the shade.

 

How were the Bordeaux's on your trip? We had an excellent St-Emilion

Pomerol and Graves.

 

Marylis: I just adored the launderette with its self filling detergent and the way everything came out smooth and unwrinkled. Would up doing five loads of laundry as it was fun!

[macbest]

We did partake of the port and cheese cart several nights. Also good to know that you can just have the port without cheese! There was a very small showing of french red's on board this trip. Much more Italian wines for some reason. The Barbera and Barolo were excellent.

 

I have seen several posts on the laundry-mat that many may think, how can you get "excited" over laundry. But it was true! Our cabin was just outside the laundry (which may sound bad due to noise but we heard none of it) and so we could just poke our head out and check to see if they were in use. After a disaster of everyone using the place on my last cruise (and having to pay for the use of the machines and pay for soap) this was a refreshing difference.

 

I even caught Patrick Swayze who was on our cruise in there once. It all comes down to everyone being the same: we all have to eat and we all have to do laundry.

[JanMD]

That is funny about the laundry room. I always volunteer to do it. The first time was on the Navigator and I forgot to hit the knob for cleaning liquid to go in. We had spent 3 days in NY and had gotten on board in NY heading to Bermuda and someone finally had to show me how to use it. lol.. Now, the family brings it to me to it on the ship.

Jan

[cactuslady]

Did you partake of the cheese trolley and glass of port. We did - every evening.

Is it correct to assume that there is no extra charge for the port and cheese? Is there a variety of ports available? What kind of cheeses? Where does the trolley go -- all the lounges? The dining room?

[macbest]

The cart is in both dining rooms. There is typically just one port for the day, although it does change once or twice on a 7 day cruise. Many of the cheeses change every day (there are about 5-7 types with 3-4 that change every day). And best of all, there is no additional charge - especially no charge for the port.

[Joanandjoe]

We're scheduled for the 9/24 cruise on the Mariner. Our TA booked us into suite 524 (across the hall from your suite 525) so we could be mid-ship. However, Joe is very sensitive to smoke. Assuming we don't get an upgrade (hope, hope!), do we need to have our cabin changed due to the smoking problem?

[Jeanne S]

On our trip each of the 5 major Bordeaux regions were featured as wines as well as in one of the Team Trivia Quizzes. They seemed to be featuring France, Italy and Germany.

 

Still cannot believe how carried away I got doing laundry!!

 

Cactus Lady: Even though we had different servers most nights, we sat in the same general area and the wait staff automatically rolled the trolley over, placing the port glasses on our table. We were told that we had been observed going gaga over the trolley.

[cactuslady]

Thanks Wayne and Jeanne! Having the port glasses appear automatically sounds wonderful.

[carolynh1976]

Hi there. I can help out with the Spa. My husband and I were on the Navigator from March 18-25th, 2005. The spa was GREAT! Both of us had reflexology massages that lasted 80 minutes apiece. THE BEST! I would suggest booking your appointments as soon as possible, because I noted that everyone seemed to choose the at sea days. I felt that the prices were fairly comparable to spas I have been to in my hometown, a bit more expensive but not by far. The staff was very nice and professional, and I was really able to enjoy and relax.

 

We didnt spend much time in the casino, only hitting a slot machine once. It usually seemed crowded, though it is a small casino.

 

Have fun!

[Marylis]

Hi Joan and Joe - Do you mean you're on the Navigator? I don't think there's a Suite 524 on the Mariner.

 

It's hard to answer your question about smoking. It depends on how sensitive you are. We never smelled it in the room itself, but it was definitely there in the hallway if someone was in the act of smoking, and since 525 and 524 are closer to the elevators, you might smell it more right outside your room.

 

However, the only way to get to any of the rooms on Deck 5 is going to be past that area where people do seem to smoke during dinner time. We didn't notice people smoking by the elevator on any other deck, though there are ashtrays outside each elevator.

 

I am pretty sensitive to smoke and I found if I held my breath when I walked by, I was fine.

 

Lis

[KeepCruizen]

Hi Carolynh1976, thanks for your input on the spa I have always gone for the hot stone massage never tried the reflexology do they bend you around a lot?

Would love to try it just want to know what I am in for ahead of time.

 

Thanks,

Denise

[Joanandjoe]

Yes, we mean the Navigator. I guess getting to our room will be like getting into most office buildings in our area: there's no smoking in the building, so you have to run through a gauntlet of smokers to get into the building. They really should ban smoking next to elevators, but obviously they don't. We'll stick to room 524 unless we can get an upgrade.